Grammaropolis
Wonderful Words

Word Family

Most English words are built from Greek and Latin parts. Learn that spect means to look, and inspect, spectator, and respect all open up together.

The Mayor teaches the machine that makes words: learn one root and you own a whole family at once.

The full Word Hoard cycle is coming.

See it · one real word
The Mayor portrait
inspector
Noun The Mayor

A person whose job is to look closely at something to check it.

In a sentenceThe inspector looked at every seat on the bus.

See the root inspector

spect Latin, meaning to look

Parts added in- into-or a person who
The family
  • inspect to look closely at something
  • spectator a person who looks on, a watcher
  • respect to look up to someone
  • spectacle a sight worth looking at
Try it

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Root Builder · Greek and Latin roots
Root Builder

One root, a whole family of words. Meet a Latin or Greek root, then build every word that grows from it. Learn one root, unlock a family.

Play Root Builder →
Watch for

Some words only look like family.

False root
pediatrician

It starts with ped, so it looks like a foot word, like pedal and pedestrian. It is not. Pediatrician comes from a different root, the Greek word for child. A doctor for children, not for feet.

Real ped family (foot)
pedalpedestrianpedestal

These really do carry the Latin ped, meaning foot. A pedal you push with your foot, a pedestrian travels on foot, a pedestal is the foot a statue stands on. The root has to mean the same thing, not just look the same.

What it teaches

A real vocabulary skill, Grades 1 through 8.

Word Family is one of the seven ways Grammaropolis teaches vocabulary, each mapped to a Common Core vocabulary strand. The Wonderful Words workbooks are standards-cited today across Common Core, Texas TEKS, Florida B.E.S.T., and New York Next Gen, and the per-grade digital alignment arrives with the cycle.

Teachers know these as word-learning strategies.

Standards strand

CCSS L.x.4.b (roots and affixes; Greek and Latin from grade 4).

See it in the Standards Explorer →